Review: Plextor M6M 256GB mSATA SSD

Marvell 9188’s First Appearance

At CES earlier this year, one of the SSD vendors with a lot to show off was Plextor who had a number of new SSDs planned for early 2014. Among the SSDs they showed were the Plextor M6e, a M.2 form factor PCIe SSD, the Plextor M6S, a new 2.5″ SATA 6Gb/s SSD, and the Plextor M6M, a new mSATA SSD. So far, we’ve already had a chance to check out Plextor’s first M.2 SSD aimed at the retail market, the Plextor M6e, and was highly impressed with the drive, so now we focus our attention to the the rest of Plextor’s lineup coming out this month.

The rest of the Plextor M6 lineup includes the Plextor M6S and the Plextor M6M which are virtually identical drives with the exception that the M6S is in the 2.5″ SATA form factor while the Plextor M6M is in the mSATA form factor. Plextor is also planning to launch a M6 Pro, which will be the flagship 2.5″ SATA form factor drive sometime later this year.

Plextor M6M mSATA Specifications

Manufacturer

Plextor

Plextor

Plextor

Plextor

Model

M6M

M6M

M6M

M6M

Model Number

PX-64M6M

PX-128M6M

PX-256M6M

PX-512M6M

Form Factor

mSATA

mSATA

mSATA

mSATA

Capacity

64 GB

128 GB

256 GB

512 TB

Controller

Marvell 88SS9188

Marvell 88SS9188

Marvell 88SS9188

Marvell 88SS9188

NAND

19nm Toshiba Toggle Mode MLC

19nm Toshiba Toggle Mode MLC

19nm Toshiba Toggle Mode MLC

19nm Toshiba Toggle Mode MLC

Sequential Reads

520 MB/s

520 MB/s

520 MB/s

520 MB/s

Sequential Writes

160 MB/s

340 MB/s

440 MB/s

440 MB/s

4K Random Read

73,000 IOPS

90,000 IOPS

98,000 IOPS

98,000 IOPS

4K Random Write

42,000 IOPS

76,000 IOPS

80,000 IOPS

80,000 IOPS

Interface

SATA 3 6GB/s

SATA 3 6GB/s

SATA 3 6GB/s

SATA 3 6GB/s

Warranty

3 Years

3 Years

3 Years

3 Years

That said, today we’ll be reviewing the Plextor M6M 256GB SSD. As far as components go, the Plextor M6M/M6S is controlled by the Marvell 88SS9188 (Monet Lite) controller, which is a controller we’re seeing on our test benches for the first time today along with some of Toshiba’s latest 2nd generation 19nm Toggle Mode MLC NAND.